Social Movements and Constitutionalism in Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan

2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (S1) ◽  
pp. S51-S75
Author(s):  
Ngoc Son BUI

AbstractThis article considers whether the academic inquiry of comparative constitutionalism in Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan may be further developed by a full consideration of the relevance of social movements. Integrating social movement theories into comparative constitutional law, this article argues that a more nuanced positive account of the creation and consolidation of constitutionalism in these East Asian polities must be situated within the engagement of social movements in discursive venues for formal and informal constitutional change.

2019 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 376-393 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xenia Chiaramonte

The relationship between social movements and the legal field is controversial and complex. This paper begins by recognizing that the concept of social movement does not belong to legal doctrine and then synthetically reconstruct the relevance of it for a legal understanding. In fact, even if this concept is not formally taken into account by constitutions or by legal codes, a socio-legal approach underscores the need for the comprehension and inclusion of collective phenomena into legal theory. First, the paper explores the way in which ‘social movement’ has been taken up and translated in the legal field through the concept of social change and constitutional change. Second, this research goes through various cases in which social movements use law strategically, from the phenomenon of cause lawyering to the litigation strategy. Finally, it stands for a theoretical understanding of the role of social movements in legal theory as a lively expression of ‘becoming-constituent’.


Author(s):  
Ngoc Son Bui

This book seeks to fill the academic gap in the existing literature on comparative constitutional law by examining how and why five current socialist countries (China, Cuba, Laos, North Korea, and Vietnam) have changed their constitutions after the fall of the Soviet Union. Adopting an interdisciplinary approach which integrates comparative constitutional law with social sciences (particularly political science and sociology), this book explores and explains: the progressive function; institutional and socio-economic causes; legal forms, processes, and powers; and five variations (universal, integration, reservation, exceptional, and personal) of socialist constitutional change. It uses qualitative methodology, including the support of fieldwork. It contributes to a better understanding of dynamic socioeconomic, legal, and constitutional change in socialist countries and comparative constitutional law and theory, generally.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Po Jen Yap ◽  
Chien-Chih Lin

This comparative study of the constitutional jurisprudence of three East Asian jurisdictions investigates how the rulings of the Constitutional Court of Taiwan, the Constitutional Court of Korea and the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal have converged. The unique political contexts of all three jurisdictions have led to strong courts using the structured proportionality doctrine and innovative constitutional remedies to address human rights issues. Hong Kong, Taiwan, and South Korea have the only courts in Asia that regularly use a structured four-stage Proportionality Analysis to invalidate laws, and routinely apply innovative constitutional remedies such as Suspension Orders and Remedial Interpretation to rectify constitutionally flawed legislation. This volume explores how judges in these areas are affected by politics within their different constitutional systems. The latest developments in Asian constitutional law are covered, with detailed analysis of key cases.


2009 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 169-184 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leontina M. Hormel

This article proposes a problem-based group project that encourages students to make connections between classroom and community. The project fosters transformative education; social activism becomes more tangible to students who learn to strategize around social issues. The following discussion highlights the goals and process of teaching with an assignment that simulates the creation of a social movement and describes examples of student actions in introductory social movements courses. The class project forges creative and effective social activism.


2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 56-64
Author(s):  
Hanafiah Hanafiah

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore, find and formulate a mechanism and strategy in social process in Dayah, which can be developed to be a model of new social process applied in public school. Design/methodology/approach The main objective of this research was to examine the strategy and mechanism of social reproduction in Dayah. The strategy and mechanism of social reproduction in public schools were also observed for comparison. The public schools were high school or vocational high school equivalent to the class in Dayah Mudi Mesra. The selected high schools as the object of comparison were SMAN 1 Samalanga and SMAN 2 Tanjungan, Samalanga. The selected public schools were public schools with similar sociological and psychological background and culture with Dayah Samalanga. This study is a social study using a qualitative approach with phenomenological design. The method used is the case study method; case studies are used as a comprehensive explanation related to the various aspects of a person, group, organization, program, or community situation that is studied, attempted and explored as deeply as possible. Findings Dayah with Islamic culture promises an effective social movement in Acehnese society. Dayah potential power was on the agents or social actor as the initiators of the idea of the creation of a network of social movements among Dayahs in Aceh. The stages of the creation of a social movement until movement crystallization can be modelled by utilizing their expert elite agents that are owned by Dayah in Aceh which is the intellectual elites and clerical elites. In addition, Dayah is a form of Acehnese local wisdom in education and religion that enables social movements to walk more naturally, democratically and educationally. Dayah ability related to Islamic culture as a broader social movement even has been tested at the level of the state and the nation of Indonesia. It is indicated by the creation of democratic process in Indonesia, which is activated by a community of Islam with democratic values as religion doctrine. As social movements, religious communities are able to construct perceptions, thoughts and attitudes in the lower class in response to the post-Suharto democratic change. Collins mentioned that social movements, which are derived from Islamic organizations, are able to show their presence at the local and national level. Originality/value The sociological wisdom is its unique social process. Based on preliminary studies, social processes in Dayah are closely related to the cosmopolitan value of Islam. This cosmopolitan value appears in the social order in the Dayah subculture, which appears to be more open to the role of the individual in society as an agent who can achieve a new social class. In this case, Dayah education can be a counter attack against negative social reproduction trends in general education.


2020 ◽  
pp. 194084472096819
Author(s):  
Briana M. Bivens

In this article, I explore how post qualitative inquiry can connect with social movement organizing in the United States to expand the scope of what’s possible for thought, action, and justice. I briefly review social movement organizing’s alignment with emancipatory theories and gesture toward the promise and importance of a collaboration between liberation struggles and theories that critique humanist and modernist thought. Poststructuralism, in particular, enables an exploration of that which might be but is not-yet and a deconstructive ethic of unsettling normalized categories, offering generative heuristics for thinking about power and justice without falling into descriptions that essentialize and homogenize. Post qualitative inquiry offers a starting point for considering how social movements might operationalize poststructural theories and theories of the ontological turn. It encourages experimentation and the creation of different ways to think/act in the face of not knowing what else to do. I argue that features of post qualitative inquiry can be useful not just in conventional research settings but also in the community organizing settings from which social movements often emerge.


Author(s):  
Hirschl Ran

The chapter argues for an interdisciplinary approach to comparative constitutional inquiry that is methodologically and substantively preferable to doctrinal accounts. It suggests that for historical, analytical, and methodological reasons, maintaining the disciplinary divide between comparative constitutional law and other closely related disciplines that study various aspects of the same constitutional phenomena, artificially and unnecessarily limits our horizons and restricts the questions asked as well as the answers provided. Traditional disciplinary boundaries, both substantive and methodological, between comparative (public) law and the social sciences continue to impede the development of comparative constitutional studies as an ambitious, coherent, and theoretically advanced area of inquiry. By engaging in a dialogue with the social sciences, and political science in particular, comparative constitutional inquiries would go beyond the traditional realms of judicial review to consider extrajudicial factors such as judicial behaviour, the origins of constitutional change, constitutional design, and the real-life effects of constitutional jurisprudence.


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 326
Author(s):  
Muzayyin Ahyar ◽  
Ni’matul Huda

The main purpose of this article is to discuss Islamic constitutionalism in the context of Indonesian social movements. Constitutionalism is part of the study of constitutional law when the discussion focuses on the concept of limiting the power of the government. Using historical and sociological approaches, this article examines socio-political circumstances in Muslim society and their relationship to the spirit of constitutionalism in Indonesia. Indonesia does not explicitly name any particular religion in its Constitution, even though most of its population is Muslim. After a series of constitutional reforms over 1999– 2002, there was no formalization of Islam in the Constitution. Two important academic questions arise when dealing with this phenomenon. First, to what extent are Indonesia’s religious social movements involved in constructing the narrative of constitutionalism? Second, how do the spirit of constitutionalism and Islam play a role in strengthening Indonesia’s Constitution? This article notes that some Muslims in Indonesia have been striving to build a narrative of Islamic constitutionalism through social movements since the nation’s pre- independence era. Nevertheless, this Islamic constitutionalism has not resulted in the formalization of an Islamic constitution in Indonesia due to several factors: the historical roots of the nation’s establishment, the pluralist stance of Indonesia’s mainstream civil Islamic movements, and the presence of the Pancasila as the state ideology. This article also reveals that Indonesia’s Muslim majority and religious authorities play a role in building the spirit of constitutionalism; however, the formalization of a specific religion as the basis of the constitution has never been realized in Indonesia.


Author(s):  
Emily Zackin

This chapter considers the variety of political calculations that drove activists, organizations, and social movements to pursue the creation of positive rights. It first explains the classic idea of constitutions as constraints before discussing the main assumptions of entrenchment theories. It then considers the distinctions among the concepts of entrenchment, judicialization, and constitutional development. It also offers additional accounts of constitutional development and highlights several unique features of constitutional law, other than its (widely recognized) capacity to entrench established policies by allowing courts to protect them. The chapter contends that we should view state constitutions' responsiveness to social change as a feature that allows us to expand the existing understanding of constitutional development.


2010 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
pp. 149-163 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Philion

This article discusses and critiques the four articles that comprise this volume on Taiwan's social movement and democratization. I argue that the four articles suggest that while Taiwan's social movements have made a clear impact on Taiwan's democratization, they remain challenged by the neo-liberal orientation of elected governments, in both KMT and DPP forms. The article provides brief comparison to East Asian NICs and Western experiences with social movements. A strength of the articles is their attention to the complex ways social movements and democratization have impacted each other for the past two decades, with attention to unintended consequences. It concludes with some thoughts on the implications of how nationalism and globalization will continue to shape the potential of social movements in Taiwan.


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